Tribeca Film Festival 2016

This year, Light Iron has eight clients screening their work at the Tribeca Film Festival. Below is more about each film, with their screening dates and times.

All We Had

Director: Katie Holmes, DP: Brett Pawlak

Colored by: Ian Vertovec, Light Iron LA

Ruthie Carmichael (Stefania Owen) makes the best of bad circumstances, pulled along in the wake of the hard luck of her mother Rita (Katie Holmes). From escaping a bad boyfriend to their car breaking down on the road to going broke, they continually find themselves in search of stability. When their attempt at settling in a new town hits a stumbling block, and as the shine wears off of the kind strangers who supported them when they had first arrived, even Ruthie struggles to keep it together. Based on Annie Weatherwax’s 2014 novel, Katie Holmes’s feature directorial debut is a sensitive rendering of the Great Recession as told by people who were unprepared for the shortfall and could not have seen it coming. Owen and Holmes are perfectly matched as they explore a mother-daughter bond crashing against universal teenage themes: growing up under hardship, realizing the imperfections of parents and facing the many little dramas that overwhelm positivity and progress. Holmes finds in All We Had a stimulating and ultimately enriching coming-of-age drama about a resilient mother and daughter who find strength in each other.

Folk Hero & Funny Guy

Director: Jeff Grace, DP: Nancy Schreiber

Colored by: Ian Vertovec, Light Iron LA

Recently dumped by his fiancée and with a stagnating standup routine, aspiring comedian-slash-copywriter Paul (Alex Karpovsky, Girls) is stuck. The manager of the club where he performs suggests he take some time off to update his comedy material, and in waltzes his childhood friend Jason Black (Wyatt Russell), an acclaimed folk-rock musician about to embark on a solo acoustic tour of the east coast. Jason suggests Paul needs to get his mojo back—and he should start by opening for Jason on tour. They set off on the road together, picking up a new act (folk singer Bryn, played by Meredith Hagner) on the way. But when Jason reveals an ulterior motive behind the tour, rifts are exposed in their otherwise affable camaraderie. Folk Hero & Funny Guy is a music-infused spin on the road-trip buddy comedy.

A Kind of Murder

Director: Andy Goddard, DP: Chris Seager

Colored by: Sean Dunckley, Light Iron NY

Architect Walter Stackhouse (Patrick Wilson), crime novelist by night, is quite unhappily married to Clara (Jessica Biel), a successful real estate saleswoman. As Walter becomes fascinated by the case of Melchior Kimmel, a bookstore owner in New Jersey suspected of murdering his wife Helen, he begins to imagine what it might be like to murder his own wife. In this faithful adaptation of the 1960s suburban thriller, The Blunderer, written by Carol author Patricia Highsmith, the question of how we judge a person’s guilty conscience in the death of another plays a central theme. When Clara turns up dead, Walter starts to seem increasingly guilty as he finds himself at the unfortunate intersection of a conniving murderer and a resolute cop. A Kind of Murder seamlessly combines philosophical musings on culpability with edge-of-your-seat Hitchcockian noir.

The Meddler

Director: Lorene Scafaria, DP: Brett Pawlak

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Susan Sarandon delivers a magnetic performance as doting mother supreme Marnie Minervini. After the death of her husband, Marnie crosses coasts to drop into the life of her screenwriter daughter Lori (Rose Byrne). When Lori demands boundaries, Marnie puts her interfering tendencies to uses that range from invasive to genuinely altruistic. She forces a genius behind the bar at her local Apple Store to go back to school, arranges a dream wedding for a near-stranger, and launches into a romance with a motorcycle-riding, free-range-chicken farming ex-cop named Zipper (J.K. Simmons).

Sarandon brings incredible range to the role, investing in Marnie a winning naiveté that transforms quick enough into sincerity to allow writer-director Lorene Scafaria’s sophomore feature to neatly reverse the obvious pitfalls of a loosely autobiographical comedy-drama about an overbearing mother. Rather than side with Lori, The Meddler offers a heartfelt and wryly scripted defense of a woman struggling to cope with familial loss. The result is an enjoyable send up on mother-daughter relations caught in the blazing spotlight of Los Angeles.

Mr. Church

Director: Bruce Beresford, DP: Sharone Meir

Colored by: Ian Vertovec, Light Iron LA

A dying mother finds that she is unable to continue caring for her young daughter Charlotte on her own, and so retains the services of one Henry Joseph Church to look after the girl. Mr. Church is an expert chef and immediately takes a shine to his precocious new ward. What began as a temporary arrangement blooms into a lifelong friendship between the talented chef and the maturing young woman. As time passes, Charlotte’s curiosity about her mysterious friend will push the limits of their bond.

As directed by the Oscar-nominated Bruce Beresford (Driving Miss Daisy), Mr. Church is a tender coming-of-age family drama about the families we have and those we make. Eddie Murphy delivers a nuanced dramatic performance as the titular character, and co-stars Britt Robertson, Xavier Samuel, Natascha McElhone and Lucy Fry round out the pitch perfect cast.

Youth In Oregon

Director: Joel David Moore, DP: Ross Riege

Colored by: Sean Dunckley, Light Iron NY

Frank Langella, Billy Crudup, Christina Applegate, Mary Kay Place and Josh Lucas star in this moving family road trip dramedy. Raymond Engersoll (Langella) aims to reach Oregon in time for an appointment to legally end his life under the state’s laws, but his headstrong daughter (Applegate) sends her unwilling husband (Crudup) along for the ride, convinced they can talk him out of the scheme before he reaches his destination. Along the way Engersoll works to reconcile with his estranged son (Lucas) and convince his tuned-out wife (Place) of the veracity of his purpose.

Langella delivers a characteristically superb performance as Engersoll, extraordinary in his depiction of the frustration, resolution, humanity, and unlikely humor inherent in his situation. Actor-turned-director Joel David Moore weaves nuance through the many lives affected by Engersoll’s determination, as parents, children and partners discover just how far they have slipped away from the ones they love. Youth in Oregon blends surprising comedy with vivid depictions of the emotional steps involved in Oregon’s end-of-life requirements, creating a powerful and disarmingly funny affirmation of the search that finds the value in the life you have.